NOTES ON TRINITY

•The mystery of the Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. Why? Because it is the mystery of God in himself, therefore, the source of all the other mysteries of faith.

•Trinity is Father, Son, Holy Spirit

•The ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 CE) professed that Jesus was consubstantial with the Father, that is, having the same nature as God.

•The ecumenical Council of Constantinople (381 CE) professed the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son

•The Dogma of the Holy Trinity

  1. The Trinity is One – The Blessed Trinity is one God, one divine being, possessing a divine substance or nature.
  2. The divine persons are really distinct from one another – “person” in the Trinity refers to distinctions between the members (and not in the sense of human persons). Thus, there are not three separate consciousnesses in God. There is only one divine being. There are not three separate intelligences or wills in the one God. When one person of the Trinity acts, the other two persons also act. Each person is distinct but does not act separately from the others. God is one, a community-in-unity. The divine persons are inseparable in both what they do and in what they are.
  3. The divine persons have distinct relationships with one another – Our faith is in one God with three divine persons who are really distinct from one another. In a mysterious way, we can say “God is one but not solitary.” The Church explains the relationships among the three persons of the Trinity this way:

The Father – The first person of the Trinity is absolutely without origin. From all eternity he “begets” the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.

The Son – We can think of the Father’s begetting the Son as God knowing himself perfectly. The Father expresses himself perfectly to himself, and this is the Son, the Word of God. Thus, the Son is the Father’s perfect, divine expression of himself. They are one, yet distinct.

The Holy Spirit – The relationship of the Father and Son is a perfect relationship. The Father and Son love each other with an eternal, perfect, divine love. The love proceeds from the Father and the Son and is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son as the perfect expression of their divine love for each other. Thus, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son; the Spirit bind them into a community-of-unity.

(Taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Our Catholic Faith, Living What We Believe, by Michael Pennock)